The Universe in Perspective

After having spent time last week on a study of the universe with Sam, I knew that it was something we would need to review. My husband brought home a movie about astronauts in outer space. He didn't know about our science lesson from last week and that Sam had some trouble understanding some of it. So it wasn't something he planned, but the timing was perfect.  Sam got to watch the movie with us and she observed some of the things that were in the book she read in her lesson on Exploring the Universe. She was able to see what an astronaut wears in space. She watched a girl putting on a space suit and noticed that the suit is bulky, heavy and thick. In one of the scenes the astronauts were in trouble as they were running out of oxygen, so she understood that the space mask supplied the oxygen for the astronauts, which helped them to breathe. She saw that they didn't need to wear their space suits or masks if they were in the shuttle. And she also noticed items floating around in the space shuttle, like a clipboard and a pencil, just as her lesson had spoken of last week.

In addition to watching the movie about space, the shuttle, and the astronauts, this week we had a lunar eclipse, or what's been described as the blood moon. Sam didn't stay up to watch it at three in the morning, but we talked in simple terms about what an eclipse means. I showed her videos and pictures how the moon looked to help her understand, since she is a visual spacial learner.  Some of the pictures showed planet Mars and the star Spica near the moon.  Sam recognized that a star and a planet look the same to us from this distance.  So together we looked up how to tell the difference between a star and a planet. I've never liked just giving my kids an answer.  When they ask a question, we look it up.  I guess it's the researcher in me.  I love looking up things.  So Sam learned that planets revolve around the sun and they almost never twinkle. She said, "Like the song, twinkle, twinkle little star?"  Exactly!  So Sam got to learn a little more than we had bargained for or than her lesson of the universe covers, thanks to the eclipse.

As I looked up pictures and videos for her, my thirst to learn more got the best of me. I mean, it's not every day we have a blood moon. So as Sam repeated the lesson from last week and moved forward a little more with it, I continued some research of my own. Her online lessons free me up to do things like this sometimes. She also likes the feeling of being able to work independently at times, while having me close enough to observe her or help her if needed.  Some of the things I found in my research were so interesting. Certainly more than I could share with Sam, but they were things that I could talk to my high schoolers about. Homeschooling my kids has give me such a thirst for learning. I've never enjoyed reading, writing and learning as much as I have the last 15 years. I wish I'd had more freedom as a kid and a teenager to discover the world of learning, but my years in school consisted of rushing to get homework done and sticking to the curriculum placed before me. Homeschooling is more natural learning, at least in our home it is. Foster a love of reading, and the world is your oyster. I have to add that I think it is so cool that I didn't plan to rent that movie my husband brought home, nor did I plan a lunar eclipse, yet it helped Sam to understand the very lessons she was having trouble with last week. This just confirms for us that homeschooling is God's plan for our family.

Exploring the Universe

This week has been chaotic in our home. We're getting closer to the date of our oldest son's wedding. We're shopping for the dresses and the suits, shoes to match, fitting for alterations, calling invitees who haven't returned their RSVP's, and preparing for the Rehearsal Dinner, which will be at our house. At times like these I'm so glad for the online curricula we use for Samantha.  I don't need to worry about planning lessons with either one. I feel like I have homeschool help.  If only I could get household help, but that's a different story.  In addition to having the lessons already planned and providing progress reports, I have teaching guides that help me dig deeper into subjects and worksheets which help reinforce what she learned online.

Sam's science lesson this week was about exploring the universe.  This is a completely new topic for her.  We had to take this a little slow this week. The science lesson began with a short story about a boy getting into his astronaut suit and going into his shuttle. His space shuttle was a big box which seemed to have been colored and made into a simple space ship by the boy.  I think this will be a fun project for Samantha and her friend to do together.  The boy in the story talked about his pencil floating when he let go of it because in space things float, and he talked about the things he saw in space. When Sam finished the story, there were some discussion questions. This was helpful in helping me determine that while she understood some of the things the boy saw in space, she didn't necessarily understand what space is.  

While a typical child may understand this in 1st grade, Samantha, who is a teenager with Down syndrome doing first grade science, had a hard time conceptualizing what space is.  Outer space or our universe is not something she has seen or that we've talked about all that much.  So I found some videos online that we looked at together.  She was amazed by some of the videos we saw. Actually, I was amazed myself.  Just seeing how small we are and our earth is in the big perspective of the universe.  I had to constrain myself so as not go into other areas. With my other kids this would've led to so much deeper conversation into Creation versus Evolution, constellations, gravity, speed of light. Samantha and I looked at a video that showed the earth zooming out to the universe, a video of the planets, stars and galaxy, and videos of space shuttles.  We will continue studying the universe for some time. 

This is one of the things I love about homeschooling. Learning can be so interesting and exciting. I get to observe the wonder and the spark in their eyes as they learn something new and something amazing, and I get to learn with them. It doesn't need to stop at the wonder of watching them take their first step. I cannot capture every moment on camera, but I sure wish I could.